Camouflage
by nukacolafission
Summary: During the Human-Faunus war, a young Atlesian Marine is seperated from his company while in the jungles of Menagerie. A short story based off the song Camouflage, Sabaton cover.


Titus walked through the brush slowly, listening for anything that might indicate someone around him. The jungle was quiet, and in the short time he had been in Menagerie, he had learned it was never a good sign when it was quiet. Usually, you could hear some kind of animal moving around, but at the moment he could only hear the little bit of wind that blew through the canopy. That could only mean one of two things, people or grimm, and in his case neither were good. He and his company had been dropped that morning, in a clearing South of his current position. They had almost immediantly come under mortar fire. They had been pushed by the officers into the jungle in hopes they could get out of it. But, as they headed for their objective, a village winch intelligence suggests contains a MDF bunker with significant supplies, they came under constant ambush from the locals.

In the chaos of one of these attacks, Titus had been seperated form his platoon. After not being able to get his bearings for a little while, he took his compass and headed back the way he had came. Eventually, he had come to the clearing they had been dropped in, but when he did he found it crawling with NMA, the local militia winch had been harrasing them since Atlas arrived. The North Menagerie Army was a militia funded by the Menagiere Defense Force, a gureilla force in ever definition of the word. They came to Menagiere in the hopes to force the faunus of the island to work with Atlas in finding those responsible for the 4034 attacks on their kingdom. But, from the start they had ended up fighting the MDF. He had joined up in the second month of the war, in the hopes of doing his part for Atlas, by the time he got out of his training for the marines and arrived in country, the MDF had been pushed back to the desert in the Southeast and the Army was holding the line with the airfleet.

So, it fell to the Marines to mop up the mess the left in the North. Knowing they couldn't defend against Atlas, the MDF built bunkers throughout the Jungles of the Island, this was done in combination with training the civillians into a proper fighting force. That's who he was facing now, not just an enemy, but an enemy that could hand you a can of soda one morning and that night be shooting at you. Infact, as he had overlooked the clearing earlier with about thirty to forty faunus milling about it, checking bodies and killing the handful of wounded from the mortars that had been left by the idiots for officers they had, he had been spotted somehow. The next thing he knew, he had been rushing through the jungle in the hopes to get away from his pursuers.

Now, he had been running from them on and off for the whole day. He estimated he had ran about six to eight kilometers North, but he couldn't be exactly sure in this green hell. He had run out of ammo in his rifle in the last engagement in the enemy, and by his count he had gotten atleast ten of them, maybe eleven. But, he knew there was still too many to risk trying to fight them with his knife and his sidearm. However, as he stepped through the forest, he heard a twig snap, and turned with his Atlesian Pattern Nineteen Eleven pistol leveled in the direction, letting his rifle stay on his shoulder. He started to move fowards towards the sound, counting down the moments he had left. But, as he took his third step fowards, he jumped at a large hand on his shoulder.

Turning to look behind and to his right, he saw a massive marine hefting an A60 over one shoulder. "Wait." He said quietly, motioning for him to get low and they both went prone on the ground. "If Foxtrot wants to tangle now, he'll have two to dodge." He said with a smile upon his face, Titus gave him a grateful not as the Marine handed him a small bag, finding it to have several magazines for his carbine in it along with belts for the Marine's A60.

"Thank you, Private First Class Titus Novana." He said as he put the fresh magazines in his harness and carbine, chambering a round with a satisfying click. Titus looked back to where they had heard what he thought was the enemy, but when he quickly glanced back to the Marine to his right, he couldn't help but feel something was off. But, he ignored it, knowing they were going to have a long night ahead of them.

"The boys just call me Camouflage." The marine commented quietly after a short while, almost making Titus jump since he had been quiet for a few minutes. Titus gave him a nod as he saw something poke through the bush ahead of them, it was a rifle, and Titus took aim at the foliage. Not a moment later, Camouflage opened up with his A60 in long bursts, sweeping through the trees. Titus joined in, but only when he could actually see a target in the close quarters of the jungle, not wanting to waste ammunition. Bullets wizzed past their heads, but they kept going on for what felt like hours. He wasn't sure how Camouflage could fight like it was, the bullets seemed to just go right around or sometimes even through him, but the man showed no sign of being hurt. As the moon was high in the sky, it got quiet for a while except for the occasional sounds of movement or injured and dying men. Eventually, he dozed off, exhausted from the day.

In the morning, he awoke to Camouflage shaking his shoulder. "Get up. I haven't heard anyone for a little while so we're going to run while its calm." He said quietly, Titus giving him a weary nod as he wasn't sure what to think. They got up and sprinted North-West, Titus following Camouflage as they did. Eventually, they came to a riverbank, and discovered the real reason they had been able to run. As they stood low at the bank of the river, they heard movement and immediantly dropped, just in time to avoid the hail of gunfire that came at them. They returned fire in the same way as the previous night, knowing they had little chance of getting out of here. They couldn't run, and there was no way they could kill this many NMA. Reloading his third magazine, Titus felt as though time slowed upon seeing a bright yellow tracer rushing at him. He accepted his fate, stopping with his rifle at a low ready as he had finished reloading. But, everything seemed to go back to normal as he watched a hand swipe the bullet out of the air as if it was no more than a fly.

"Get you're head in it boy! We can't lose this here!" Camouflage yelled at him, and he quickly returned fire back at the enemy in the same direction the bullet had came from. He heard a scream as he did and swapped to another target a moment later. They kept fighting until they had no more ammo, with no other option, they jumped into the river, knowing there was a base downstream. They were thrown about, but managed to stay together, eventually coming to the other side of the bank. Around noon, they were overlooking Titus's camp from a cliffside, the small airbase going about it's daily operations.

"That's my camp there, c'mon we'll get you back to you're unit." Titus said, walking down a trail that lead to the base of the cliff. However, after a moment of not hearing anyone behind him, he looked back, seeing the Marine giving him a smile.

"My camp is nearby, I'll just head there myself." He said and before Titus could stop him, he started to turn, so Titus just waved goodbye, watching him walk off. He turned and gave him a wink before going out of sight into the jungle and was gone. Slowly, Titus turned and started back down the path, knowing he had a hell of a story to tell to the Lieutenant.

Upon reaching the part of the camp his company was at, he found his platoon leader in his tent, walking in and giving him a slaute. "Sir, Private First Class Novana reporting, I got lost in the jungle during combat a day ago."

"At ease, we were twenty four kilometers into enemy territory, how did you make it back here alone?"

"I didn't, I had help."

"From?"

"After being seperated, I made my way back to the clearing we inserted at. The enemy was there going over those who died or were wounded in the mortar attack to the point we thought they were dead. They spotted me and I had to run from them, luckily I headed North still. Regardless, I ran from them for most of the day, managing to keep from being caputured for a while. However, I ran out of ammo that afternoon and they were closing in on me. I was going to use my sidearm and take as many with me as I could, but a Marine showed up and stopped me. Huge guy, probably six-five, every bit of two-thirty or two-forty on him. He was carrying an A60 and his regular gear, along with a backpack full of belts of ammo and magazines for my carbine."

"So, it was this Marine that helped you make it back here?"

"Yes, we fought most of the night, should have seen the guy. He fought like some kind of best, bullets seemed to go right through or through him as if he wasn't there. The next morning we made a run for it and came to the Black Run where we were ambushed with the river to our backs. When we ran out of ammo, we jumped in, knowing it would bring us in this direction at the least. We managed to stick together and he got me back here, I'd be dead if he hadn't."

"Son I don't doubt you, but what was this Marine's name, if this is all true, he deserves some recognition for this."

"Camouflage." Titus repied, hearing a sharp breath behind him and looking to see a medic, he turned back to the man he had been talking to to see a suprised look on his face.

"Son, go with him, you, show him." He said to Titus and then the Medic. The medic took his arm and lead him outside and then to a medical tent nearby. They walked inside and over to a bodybag, the medic unzipping it enough to reveal a face. Laying there, clearly dead was Camouflage, and Titus took a shuddering breath, knowing why something felt off last night.

"You may be telling the truth boy, but htis here is Camouflage, and he's been here since he passed away last night. But, before he went, he told us Semper Fi, and said his last wish was to save a young Marine caught in a barrage. So, here, take his dog tag son. I know he'd want you to have it now." He said, holding the small metal thing out to him, Titus slowly took it with a nod as the medic zipped the bag back up.

"So I need to ask, how was he here and there?"

"Come on, we'll talk while I look you over." He says, taking him out of the tent and into one next door, setting him down in a chair and starting to look him over. "He was a good friend of mine you know? We joined together, we went into Recon together, he told me last night to go see you're el-t this morning after his final wish, then I met you. Regardless, he was being scouted for some new unit being established back in Atlas. All I know is they unlocked his aura and with it, his semblance."

"Like a huntsman?"

"Yeah kid, like a huntsman, anyway his semblance was the ability to create a clone to fight alongside him, I've seen them last up to twenty four hours. If I had to guess, the man you fought alongside was Camouflage using his semblance to stick around long enough to come help you." He said, patching up the one wound I had gotten, a gunshot that had grazed me before I met Camouflage.

"Well, I'm just glad he was there, thanks." Titus said, unsure of what to say after what he had just learned.

"Don't worry about it, and don't feel bad. He was dying anyway, somehow he knew you were out there and he wanted to do something else good before he left." He said with a sad smile, Titus nodded, shaking his hand before walking out of the tent and stumbling through the base towards his own, he was going to need something stronger than the shit tasting water they had around here.

(A\N)

Hey everyone, I hope you liked this short story. I won't say much here because I don't want to take up too much of a word count. But, I wanted to explain this. Anyway, this may seem familliar, if you're a Sabaton fan and that's the case then I succeeded. This short story was based off the song Camouflage by Sabaton. I've been wanting to write a RWBY fic that revolved around the faunus war being something akin to Vietnam for a little while. I was listening to the song and figured I could do something short here with it. None of these characters will actually be in the main story, this was just to throw out the idea of a RWBY vietnam type story.

The story I want to eventually write will be called the boys of '35. The story will take place forty years after the end of the great war, following a young Atlesian Recon Marine and his squad after they are sent to Menagerie during the human faunus war. I have a few ideas, so hopefully this will get you interested. When I post Boy's of '35 I'll update this to mention it's released. For the moment though, I have a few stories I'm currently working on and I won't be able to get to that one for a while. Regardless, hope you enjoyed this glimpse at it, have a good one!


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